Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-07-13
VHE PETITION WITHDRAWN.

WAN
election to be held at which a vote would
be taken on the proposition to substitute a
county subscription of 100000 for the
township subscriptions now made, amount.
ing to s217 600, the S83, 900 in excess of the
original township subscriptions to be ap-
piled to the Augusta and Charlotte divis-
ion of the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chi
cago Railroad, has been withdrs wn. The
letter of Col. r. A. Johnson, General Man
ager of the Massachusetts, and Southern
Construction Company, to Maj. Jas. F.
Hart, counsel for the company, making
known the fact, is as follows:
CHARLOTTE, n. c., July 18th, 1887.
Major JAMES F. HART, Counsel, &c.
MY DEARSIR: Sometime since, when our
railroad company contemplated the merg-
ing of the Georgia and Carolina Midland
Railroad under construction from Augusta,
Ca, to Union, S. c., into the Charleston,
Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad Compa.
ny, no definite plan of connection east OF
Union had been decided upon.
The original plan of the Georgia and
Carolina Midland Railroad Company was
to run from Union to Gaffney City, thence
to intersect our railroad at some point in
the vicinity of Forest City, in Rutherford
county, N. C. The towns and townships
between Union and Gaffney City have
voted a subscription of about $120, 900, and
these subscriptions are recorded and valid
beyond question. During the considers
|Ition of the question of merging the Geor-
Fgia and Carolina Midland Railroad into
the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago
Railroad Company, I had frequently been
asked and urged to bring the railroad from
Union into York county, through Bullock's
Creek township.
My reply to these suggestions has been
that our Company would certainly not
abandon the subscription, amounting. to
over S10O, 900, upon the line between Union
and Gaffney City, when, at the same time,
a connection by the way of Gaffney City, is
in some respects more desirable to us, by
reason of the fact that we would thus
obtain a heavy local traffic, which we
or route in York county.
conferred fully with several intelligent
citizens of York county, and the belief
was freely expressed that the county ought
and would acS literally to secure a rail
road connection so advantageous and from
a direction so desirable to the county.
1 had alwaysfelt that 1 should be great
ly pleased to have an opportunity to give
Bullock's Creek township such railroad
facilities as it desires, especially as its
people had so generously voted to our
company a subscription equal to the limit
allowed by the Constitution.
This desire, coupled with the belief that
the Augusta division, running through
York county and giving to us and the
people along the line a Charlotte connec-
ton, which would so clearly make the
whole enterprise a county matter, induced
me to put in circulation the petitions
which have recently been offered to the
freehold voters of York county for their
signatures and here I may add, in reply
to certain accusations which [ learn have
been made against certain individuals and
sections, that the proposition to submit
the question of a county subscription, as
we'll as the terms and conditions of the
petitions, originated solely and entirely
with our company.
If the petitions had been promptly sign.
ed and adopted, a loss of 4 $1,000 in sub
scriptions to the company would have
been caused by relinquishing the Gaffney
route for that through York county.
I could see no wrong in the proposition
to exchange the township for a county
subscription, especially as the Augusta
section would add largely to the taxable
property of the county, over and above
that which will be added by the construc-
ton # the main line of our road. And l
conf So myself simple enough to have in
duleed in the belief that the people would
promptly have seized the opportunity to
secure the great benefits which would
have accrued tterefrom.
The petitions were placed in the hands
of canvassers on Thursday, the 3Oth of
June, and on Monday, the 4th of July, a
meeting was held by the people of York
the signing of the petitions by the people
of the county, upon the avowed grounds
LIST. That it did not originate with the
Yorkville people.
End. That they had not been consulted
in regard to its terms; and
3rd. The location was not sufficiently
definite to suit the people of Yorkville.
The legitimate inference from the reso-
lutions of the Yorkville meeting is this
that the petitions did not definitely fix the
line of the Augusta division through the
town of Yorkville. But 10 objection was
raised at that meeting to the general prin-
ciple involved in the proposition for a
county vote, nor upon the ground that In
justice might be done to any other part of
the county.
Of course, I could not discriminate in
favor of the people of Yorkville by giving
them such guarantee as they requested,
for the following reasons:
1st. The location of the Georgia and Car:
olina Midland Railroad, a line which will
be of so much Importance to our system,
will require the most careful and mature
consideration, and is to be determined by
accurate and painstaking surveys by our
engineers as to cost of construction, and
also by the Company, with a view to traffic
advantages.
End. It seemed to me that so far as the
general interests of the county are con-
cerned, the adoption of any n of the
routes through York county, as indicated
in the petitions, would secure to the whole
county, by mean of the connection with
the main line, direct communication with
the southwest.
3rd. The Charleston, Cincinnati and
had one unpleasant and bitter election eX-
p%erience with the people Of Yorkville,
which grew out of an assured fixed line
from Blacks to Yorkville, and having
a vivid recollection of the labor, %inconve-
nience and expense of inducing the people
of Yorkville to modify the terms and CON
ditions of their subscription so asto permit
US to build by the way Of Hickory Grove,
and thus to secure a practicable route, and
at the same time enable us to give to the
people of Western York the railroad facil-
tiles they so much needed and desired, we
have no desire to repeat the experience.
In view of all these considerations, you
will please, as our attorney, at once, have
withdrawn from circulation the petitions
asking for a county vote.
In closing this letter, I am prompted to
add that 1 have no greater regretin taking
this step than that caused by the remem-
brance of the position in which it leaves